California: 1 million is left without light for risk of fire

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to more than a million people on Sunday to avoid possible fires before the return of dry weather and windy weather to the region, announced the company on Friday.

The greater company of services of the united States said that it will leave no light to customers in 38 counties, including most of the bay of San Francisco, because the weather forecast includes the return of the dry weather and gusts of wind that threaten to knock down or affect the power lines or other equipment, which in recent years is attributed to enormous and deadly fires in the central and northern California.

It is expected that the cuts to preventative begin Sunday morning and last until Tuesday, affecting 466.000 homes and businesses, or to more than one million residents assuming that, in each house and business premises, there are between two and three people.

The cuts are expected for parts of the Sacramento Valley, the northern and central Sierra Nevada, high elevations of the San Francisco bay, the Santa Cruz mountains, central coast and southern parts of the county of Kern.

Among those affected there will be about 19,000 customers in parts of the county of Butte, where in 2018, a fire caused by the equipment PG&E; destroyed a large part of the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

The forecast for the area warning of “the moisture levels are drier and stronger winds of this season of fires,” said the statement from PG&E;.

The National Weather Service issued warnings of red level for many areas, predicting winds of 56 km/h (35 mph) or more in San Francisco and at low elevations, and up to 113 km/h (70 mph) on some mountains. Worried that any spark may cause fire arrasen dry bushes and mountains.